Is It Okay To Put Pine Bedding On My Garden

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Raising BackYard Chickens
Coop & Run - Design, Construction, & Maintenance

Pine Shavings and a Garden Question

Thread starter ginger c.
Start date May 5, 2011

Hopefully, this is the proper thread for this.

We currently have 4 chicks (2-3 weeks old). They are in a 54 gallon storage tub. So we use a lot of pine shavings.

I also have a vegetable garden in the back yard that needs something to keep the extra grass out. Can I use the pine shavings directly in the garden like mulch? I don't think there is enough poop in them to burn the plants. It seems it might be a good way of disposing of some of the shavings, feeding my garden, and cutting back on grass/weed growth.

Any thoughts?

TIA,

GC's DH

I use the shavings in all my flower beds. Not aged, not composted, just fresh on top the beds. You should see the BEAUTIFUL flowers I have!!! I've not had any problems with burning. I used to spend big bucks each year putting out mulch. Now I get to double use the pine shavings and save the mulch money for chicken food! HA!

Be careful. Chicken manure can carry salmonella and e-coli. These things occur in nature, but can be concentrated and transfer to ground vegetables like turnips, lettuce, and radishes, things oft times eaten raw and uncooked.

I cease all manure applications a month before planting in a area where I am going to grow raw vegetables. Some conservative recommendations state 60 days. Applying through fall and winter is your safest bet.

Usually shavings uncomposted dont help plants. With the poo mixed with them it shouldnt hurt a thing, beyond precaution against eating the veggies right out of the garden without a wash as stated above. We made the mistake of using shavings around our Blueberrys and Blackberrys (had to use the clean shavings up, no poo on them) and it had a very negative affect last year. Once we contacted some folks for help, they quickly pointed out our problem. Shavings removed, manure put in place and kapoow!

I take shavings and put them in a section of garden that is still to be planted. I do plantings over a time period that allows a season long harvest so its no big deal. I probably wouldnt think twice about using them from the coop around flowers, but we dont eat flowers so we don't have many LOL!

Thread starter
#5

ginger c. :

Can I use the pine shavings directly in the garden like mulch? I don't think there is enough poop in them to burn the plants.

As long as you think there isn't too much poo, sure. (no way of telling over the internet, everyone has different bedding-depth and cleanout tactics

)

They will blow around a bit until they've been rained on a time or two, so I wouldn't put 'em out right before a windy spell. And however much you think there isn't too much poo, you might want to keep them away from your more-valuable plants til you have done it for long enough to get some ground-truthing

Shavings do make reasonable mulch once they *have* been rained on a bit to settle them down.

As others have mentioned, there is the splash-up fecal-bacteria-contamination issue if you use them in the veg garden, but everyone has their own feelings about that and you just have to go with what you think is best.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

Quote:
In my area shavings are recommended around blueberries. Just goes to show that different areas and soils need different things.

I put the older coop litter in the garden and around trees and shrubs and haven't had any problems. I would think that the shavings would help negate any "heat" from the manure. Straight manure can be too much until it has aged.

You should always wash any root crops when using manure for fertilizer unless it is real old and even then I would be cautious.

Some of these comments are directed towards the thread in general, not towards the post I quoted.

I've used duck bedding and pigeon bedding, and this year chicken bedding, as compost for my garden. I've used it fresh and aged, works well either way. I wash my veggies anyway because of our massive slug and snail population. Best tomatoes I've ever had were from seeds my ducks didn't digest, the plant grew straight from their poo in their run. It produced so much I couldn't keep up with it and grew taller than the 6'h run it was in.